Virgin to contest Qantas for Tokyo Haneda slots
With the Olympics looming, Virgin plans to disrupt Qantas’ stranglehold on Tokyo’s handiest airport.
Qantas will face competition from Virgin Australia for new slots at Tokyo Haneda Airport, becoming available next year in time for the 2020 Olympics.
The International Air Services Commission has received an application from Qantas for both daily slots on offer, which the Flying Kangaroo would use for an additional flight from Sydney and a flight from Melbourne.
Haneda is much closer to the Tokyo CBD than Narita Airport, but slots are difficult to come by. Currently Qantas operates overnight flights on B747s from Sydney to Haneda, and is the only Australian carrier to service the route.
The new services would be flown by A330s out of Melbourne, and either A330s or 787-9 Dreamliners out of Sydney.
Qantas’s application to the IASC highlighted the fact the airline has been serving the Japan route for more than 70 years.
“Qantas is the only Australian carrier to have the necessary brand, sales and distribution, network, marketing presence and regulatory approvals to support these additional services in a long-term and sustainable manner,” the application said.
“Accordingly, allocation of the two additional Haneda frequencies to Qantas would ensure there is no risk of the capacity not being fully utilised in the required time frame and would promote effective competition by Australian carriers on one of the country’s most mature but complex travel markets.”
But in a surprise move, Virgin Australia released a statement on Tuesday signalling its intention to begin services to Japan, and announcing it would apply for the one of the available slots into Haneda.
“Japan is a very strong and important market for both inbound and outbound travel to Australia, with travel volumes growing by almost 50 per cent since 2015,” its statement said.
“Haneda Airport in particular is a popular entry point into Japan because of its convivence and close proximity to Tokyo city.”
It added that the airline’s “intended application for slots at Haneda was extremely important to ensure there was competition in the market to bring choice and value for consumers with lower airfares and more travel options to Japan”.
The Virgin Australia application comes as the airline reviews all of its services following a $315.4 million net loss in the 2019 financial year.
Group CEO Paul Scurrah recently told The Australian that any new routes would have to “stack up from a financial point of view and plug a network gap that’s important to us”.
The IASC has set a deadline of next Tuesday September 24 for applications.
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